Poland’s president to sign controversial Holocaust bill
President Andrzej Duda says he will send the law to Warsaw’s Constitutional Tribunal
Warsaw — Poland’s President Andrzej Duda on Tuesday signed into law a controversial Holocaust bill intended to safeguard his country’s image abroad but which has instead sparked tensions with Israel, the US and Ukraine. Duda also said he would send the law, which will come into force, to the Constitutional Tribunal to rule on whether it conforms with constitutional guarantees on freedom of speech. The law sets fines or a maximum three-year jail term for anyone who erroneously describes Nazi German death camps such as Auschwitz-Birkenau as being Polish, simply due to their geographical location. Israel, however, has expressed concern that the legislation could open the door to prosecuting Holocaust survivors for their testimony should it concern the involvement of individual Poles for allegedly killing or giving up Jews to the Germans. "I have decided to sign the law but also to send it to the Constitutional Tribunal," Duda said in Warsaw. He said that his decision "preserves the int...
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